Comments: I forgot how much fun these are to make. I finished knitting it February 10, 2014. Usually it takes just a few hours for me to knit one of these, but I was knitting along with a class I was teaching on the subject.

For the chain, I used size 11 Japanese seed beads in black, and the leftover Czech beads from the bag. I also used an assortment of glass and sterling silver beads for embellishment. Stitch used on the chain was netting.

Close up of bag. It's about 2.5 inches across.

Close up of flap with dangle.

Bead embellishments.

The netted chain.

The front.

The back.

Bottom view

I will enjoy wearing this.

Important news: I am going offline for a couple weeks. We're taking a trip to Washington D.C. and Rhode Island with my brother-in-law and his family. I will get to see my daughter Sarah and my son-in-law Frank. I am very excited. You'll hear from me again mid April.

Comments: I made quite a few changes to this sweater. I adjusted the size so it would fit me properly. For instance, I shortened the sleeves by 4 inches because I have short arms. I replaced 2 of the original stitch patterns with different ones and left another one out altogether. Instead of the rolled neck, I did a 1x1 rib neckband. However all the basic traditional Gansey elements are there.

It fits perfectly and is so comfortable! I wore it all day Sunday. I really love this sweater.

Close up of the stitch patterns I used. From top to bottom: Diagonal, Granite Stitch, Diamonds, Basketweave, and Zigzag, separated by a couple rows of garter stitch.

The underarm gusset, full on

and side view.

The neck gusset and shoulder seam.

The neckband.

Laying out on what passes for our lawn around here at this time of year. Actually, I should be thankful it's not covered in snow. Usually it is in March.

Cable insisted on being in at least one photo. Silly girl.

I am so happy with this sweater! And I got it done in time to be able to wear it for at least a few weeks.

3/21/14

She's been in the family a long time, 12 years. In 2002 we went to the local shelter to see if there was a cat we could add to the family. Chenille was just 3 weeks old. She and her 2 brothers had been abandoned in a box on the doorstep of the shelter when it was closed. They weren't even on solid food yet. The heartlessness of some humans is appalling.

The shelter doesn't usually adopt out kittens that young. They care for them until they are 8 weeks old and weaned, but I assured them we'd do right by her. So they decided to trust us. I took her to our vet immediately. He gave us advice on how best to feed her and our adventure began. She had to be fed every 2 hours, including in the middle of the night, just like a real human baby does. My daughter Sarah took on the responsibility. She did a very good job, and learned a lot from the experience. Fortunately, kittens grow and develop quickly so the lesson lasted just a few weeks.

Chenille is MY cat. Or rather, she considers me HER human. She's a tiny little thing. Being taken from her mother too early stunted her growth. But she's my sweetie. She spends inordinate amounts of time snoozing in my lap when I'm knitting, or computing. She talks to me a lot too. I don't understand a meow she says, but I pretend to. This makes her happy.

We have a morning routine. When she thinks I should be getting up (based on her need to see me again, usually), she starts loudly meowing outside my bedroom door. Eventually I get up cuz she's very LOUD and insistent. I open the door. If the water dish is empty, she tells me about it and trots over to the dish to point it out. If not, then she is just happy to see me.

She usually wants me to pick her up, carry her over to the living room window so she can look out for a minute, then she wants down. After that she waits, impatiently I might add, for me to feed the dog, make coffee, and do whatever else needs done before I sit down and boot my laptop. As soon as I sit down she's in my lap. This can be a good thing or a bad thing.

If she's feeling good, then it's a good thing. She settles down, purrs, and eventually dozes off. Occasionally, not as much as she did when she was young, she'll settle in for a session of toe sucking while I stroke her back. Like thumb sucking, but one of her front toes. She is most comforted by this behavior. Most of the time, though, she's in a bad mood. She doesn't feel well most days. She has a bit of arthritis in her back and she's getting old which makes her grumpy. Then it's getting in my lap, begging me to scritch her head, getting mad at me for scritching her head, yowling and jumping off in a huff, then returning 5 minutes later to 'reluctantly' settle down and go to sleep. She can be quite the drama queen.

Because I'm hers, she doesn't scratch me like she does the rest of the family when annoyed. She bats me with her claws in. Everyone else gets ripped open. Sometimes she'll be so cranky she bites. She doesn't bite me hard enough to hurt me, but she draws blood on everyone else.

3/20/14

Phooey! Last night I had just 3 inches left on the second gansey sleeve. I was so excited! I was gonna finish that baby. YAY!

But!

Yeah, something was wrong. I had space for 5 more decreases and 11 stitches left to decrease. I have no idea what went wrong. I thought I was very careful with the note taking when I made the first sleeve so the second one would match. I ripped the sleeve back and have started over. So far, so good...

3/18/14

It still needs to be blocked, but here is the sock I've been knitting along with my sock class. It will be my next pattern.

Haven't cast on it's mate yet. Been working on the gansey. I've got half a second sleeve done. So close to being able to wear it!

The class is done now, and I'm relieved. It was not a fun one to teach. It was, in fact, extremely frustrating for me. It started out great on the first session. I don't know what happened after that. Only one student actually finished a sock. That would be the guy in the class. He did very well on his sock. It turned out beautiful. His wife will love them when he gets the second one done. Not all classes are fun to teach. Hopefully, the next sock class will be better. I've got one scheduled to begin in May.

I finished the entrelac mitts class this week too. Glad to be done with it. No more classes for me until mid April. Something else is planned. But that is for another blog post.

In the meantime, the sun is shining and today's high is expected to be in the 50's. Look out deck! Here I come! Woo HOO!

3/7/14

I'm starting a new meme for the blog. I was doing Caturday, but the gal I was doing it with had to stop, so that was the end of that. Now I'm going to start Friday Feline. Probably won't do it every Friday, like I don't do WIP Wednesday every week, but it's something to write about when I can't think of anything else.

This is Merino with his favorite toy.

That is my daughters Nook tablet. She downloaded a cat toy app and he LOVES it! The app shows a mouse, or bird on the screen that moves around. It looks like you're looking down inside something. Merino loves to swat and watch the thing. In fact, he will actually get up on Ruth's lap, put his paw on her tablet, and give her 'that look'. The one that says "Please, may I play now?"

He's quite a big boy now. He weighs in at 15 pounds. He's become a bit of a bully to the other felines in the house. His brother has scratches and scabs from 'big' brother playing too hard with him. I think he thinks he's a dog at times. Cable still gives him a bath every day, and sometimes she'll share her dog food with him (which I'm trying to discourage cuz dog food is not good for cats).

Last night I finished the first sleeve on my Gansey. Hurray!

The sleeves are turning out to be quite the challenge. I had to shorten them by 4 inches! The pattern says to make them 18 inches long, before the 2 inches of cuff ribbing. I did some measuring and realized the sleeves would hang practically down to my knees if I did that. So, I decided to shorten them by 3 inches, recalculating the decreases accordingly. When I got to 11 inches long, I realized I needed to shorten them even more, so I adjusted the decreases again at that point. The sleeve length is just PERFECT now. Fortunately, I wrote down what I did as I went along so the second sleeve will match.

Today the weather was awesome! It was 51 degrees! The sun was out for awhile too. All the snow on the deck is gone and I sat out there soaking up some sun for a few minutes. It was wonderful. Spring is coming! Yay!

Comments: I'm getting better at making doll clothes. It was a long time between when I bound off and when I got around to blocking, sewing, and putting on the snaps. Life has been busy. Anyway, the plan is to send this to my sister, who will make a skirt to go with it (she sews), and then she'll try to sell the outfit on Ebay. Just an experiment to see what happens.

The tights and belt are from the Prudence Not All Black and White outfit. Beside Amber is Prudence wearing a dress my daughter, Ruth, knitted.

There's another dress she knit in the same pink as the above tunic, but I haven't gotten to the sewing and snaps yet. I also plan to do some bead embroidery on it. Just haven't decided exactly what, yet.

I've got the 3rd session of the entrelac mitts class today. It's supposed to be the last session, but things are not going well so I'll probably add a 4th one. I hate doing that. But, I want the students to learn what they've paid me to teach them.

Last Saturdays 2nd session of the sock class didn't go well either. No one had finished their homework, so I couldn't teach them what was planned-heel flap and turn. Spent most of the time while they finished knitting the leg. I got them started on the flap. We'll turn the heel at the next session. Two students didn't show up, and another one announced she won't be there next Saturday. Urg. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do now. One thing for certain though, from now on, I will hand out a class outline of what will be taught each session of a class so students are aware of what they'll be missing.

It snowed over the weekend. Especially Sunday. Got a few inches of the stuff, and it's very cold. In the teens during the day and single digits at night. I'm not going to complain though cuz we're not getting that polar vortex stuff here. Besides, it's March. Spring is not far away.

3/2/14

I think I've completely lost it. 55 years old and still playing with dolls. Oh well.

I decided my Ellie needed a male friend quite some time ago. There is only one male doll in the Ellowyne Wilde series, Rufus, and I don't care for him at all. So I went looking for something compatible elsewhere. It has taken me quite a while to find something I liked. Mostly because the Ellowyne Wilde dolls heads are out of proportion to the body, being a bit on the large side. That's made it difficult.

I came across the Andy Mills-No Fare quite by chance when doing a google search.

Andy Mills No Fare by Tonner Dolls

He's a Tonner doll, from the Cami and Jon series, but he is not on the Tonner web site any where. There are other Andy Mills, but not this one.

With glasses.

I think it may be because he was never available for retail? He was a doll attendees of a 2011 Tonner doll conference received. Only 150 of him were made, and I paid an incredibly good price for him. One of those 'too good to be believed' things. I'm quite pleased.

His head is smaller in proportion than Ellie's, but it is in proportion to his body. He has the Matt O'Neill body, which Rufus also has, so he will fit Rufus sized clothes. I like the doll very much. I even like his outfit. Ellie seems to be getting along quite well with him.